Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 matching your filters

The popularity of Twitter and Facebook make them attractive targets for attackers. The viral features and open APIs make it an efficient medium for attackers. In this talk, we discuss the scale and history of malicious activity on Twitter and Facebook. Based on a comprehensive research study, we demonstrate how attackers respond rapidly to the large increases of users driven by celebrity attention. We highlight popular attack techniques across trending topics, URL shorteners, fake accounts, photo tagging, and fake apps. We show how malware has been designed to steal social network credentials and use them to carry out automated attacks. In order to safeguard the future and usefulness of these platforms, the community and industry must combat these threats and control this malicious activity. We explore ways to safeguard individual users and brands. We also suggest approaches that social network providers should take to improve the security of their networks. This session is part of the Big Data Track sponsored by Gemalto.